deoxyribonucleic acid
by turukte
Summary: deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA. Mutate human DNA, and you get Mutants. Not everybody appreciates mutants. A lot of people think the Earth'll be better off without them. Seven mutants end up all working together, and end up having to save the human race. Mutant AU. No Demi(gods).
1. Chapter 0 Prologue

**Chapter 0 - Prologue **

**A/N Sorry, the beginning of this is a time-line history of how the Earth got to the point it's at when the real story begins. Please take the time to read through carefully, as it is important! **

**Erebus; 2000**- an illegal scientific institute. Erebus Scientists have been working on a enhancement serum for Human DNA. Illegal animal testing of the serum, which has failed countless times, has been conducted for several years. Erebus is making slow progress. Failed attempts result in beastly productions - disfigured animals, very deadly creatures. There are no plans for human trials within the near future, regardless of the impatient protests of several of the institute's leading scientists.

**2002** - Erebus has not yet begun human trials. Animal testing continues illegally, for the enhancement serum, despite the continued appearances of likely-fatal side-effects on 90% of subjects. Dr Gaea, one of the institute leading experts and developers of the serum, transfers some of the under-developed serum to an unborn human embryo. She names is Ouranos.

**2010 - **The child Ouranos reaches the equivalent age of 24 years within 8 human yearspans. The human subject ages three times faster than regular humanoids. Ouranos' presence is all encompassing, and Dr Gaea has difficulty keeping the human subject secret. Few scientists from Erebus know of this.

**2021** - Dr Gaea uses Ouranos' blood to create Twelve enhanced human embryos. The dose of serum is slightly weaker than given to produce Ouranos, but the embryos develop into young men and women with extraordinary DNA developments. The entirety of Erebus eventually comes to know of Gaea's experiments, but they work to keep the serum secret from the government. Gaea names her twelve experiments the 'earth-born'.

**2024 **- The Erebus scientists try to develop a version of the serum that can be passed through air, like a virus. Eventually, they develop a viral strand of the serum, that, potentially, could be released into the air of a busy place, and infect many people. Human trials will be conducted soon, but the scientists are still unsure of how the human body will react with the viral strand.

**2025 - **The viral strand is not compatible with ordinary human DNA. The three human subjects all died from the virus of the serum. The serum is being kept in lockdown situations - proven to be extremely contagious and dangerous.

**2026** - The viral strand of the serum is accidentally released from the safety situations at the Erebus facility. A worker carries to virus home, passing it onto three more people, before dying in his home of the illness.

**Olympian **- A government approved scientific corporation, who work in the biological and chemical fields. They focus of medicine, vaccines, and work closely with the World Health Organisation. In **2026 **a anonymous messenger tips the scientists at Olympian (working in the biological developments department) off about the Enhancement Serum being tested at the illegal institute _Erebus. _Olympian takes two years to develop a similar serum, and in **2028** they use it produce Twelve opposing embryos, each one matching one of the Earth-born.

**2028 **- Alongside the development of the Twelve Olympians, as they are to be known, The Olympian corporation are working to develop a mass-cure for the _Erebus Virus. _

**2052 - **A working cure, or vaccine, is never developed in time, and the _Erebus Virus _sweeps the globe. It mutates to fit medicine administered to those who catch the illness, and third-world countries are unable to fight the plague of the virus. It cannot be treated with antibiotics. First-world countries even experience the death-rate. The Olympian corporation are still working for a cure.

**2100 - **The _Erebus Virus _seems to have been worked into submission. Human population is dwindling, and immunity to the virus only blesses few and far between. Those who survive the virus, despite not being immune, develop a mutual hatred for the immune. They are _Mutants. _

**2120 - **The majority of North America has broken into three civilizations. _Hunters/ Survivors - _Survivors of the Virus, most ambitious - they govern most of the cities and towns. Having survived the disease, they all developed increased speed, strength, and intelligence. _Humans _- Those who have not yet caught the disease, but do not show positive when tested for immunity - most of them live in high-security facilities, in the largest cities. _Mutants _- Those who have been tested positive for immunity - although the test is not always necessary, due to the shocking development of mutant enhancements. Scientists believe that, after coming into contact with the virus, the body of the mutants developed into something it hoped would be stronger. The results are varied.

Mutants are driven into hiding and submission by the Hunters. Hunters are priority, because the mutant strand of DNA is blatantly seen as a poison to strain of the human DNA.

**The Earthborn - **The Earthborn are kept and trained in the Erebus facility, which is now run by Survivors, and Mutants who have given themselves up to work for them. Not many people know whether Erebus is planning anything.

**The Olympians **- The Olympians live within the Olympian Corporation, and they sometimes help when the population of virus-infected _animals _becomes too much for regular mutants to handle. This is rare, and the Olympians are more likely to remain hidden.

**Infected Animals - **A breakout within Erebus was conducted by an anonymous opposer, and dozens of the failed Enhancement Serum subjects were released. Alongside this, the outbreak of the Erebus Virus infected some strands of Animal DNA. This produced many violent sub-strands of animals - including canines, felines, horses, and sea-life, insects, and reptiles. The Hunters designate the job of protecting the population against these beasts to the mutants.

**A/N - Chapter 1 begins next Chapter. This is an informative prologue :)**

**~Rad**


	2. Chapter 1 The MDD

**A/N - Here's the story now!**

**Percy - Age 22**

**Annabeth - Age 22**

Personally, this wasn't how Percy had been planning his weekend. Nope, not at all - earlier in the week, he'd been hoping for an errand-free weekend. Boy, was he wrong. Since when did he ever have an errand-free weekend? Instead, he was battling hell-hound sized housedogs with a thirst for mutant blood.

He swings his sword as the hell-hound comes barrelling towards him - all matted fur, drool, and furious red eyes - and lodges the blade in the bottom of the beasts bottom jaw. He shoves upwards, and the hound lets out a strangled yowl. The sharp tip of Riptide cuts loose of the Hellhound's jaw, and Percy swings the weapon back down in an arc and thrusts the tip up into the neck of the stunned hound. He's hit the right spot, because the canine struggles desperately for a few seconds, before falling limp against the sword, it's hind paws loosing grip against the floor. The body slumps to the ground, dust clouds billowing from the impact.

Percy removes his sword from the neck of the hell-hound and wipes the bloody edge on a cloth he carries in his back pocket (don't worry, it's washed hella often). He'll have to leave the empty hell-hound carcass where it is. Some other monster'll come and eat it, or the disposal team'll get there first. They only arrive once everything's dead. He sheathes his sword in it's holster strapped to his back, and glances over to where Annabeth is watching him from across the street. She'd already dispatched her hell-hound attacker before he had.

"Don't look so smug, Wise Girl," Percy calls to her, as he walks over to where she is perched on a low brick wall. She smirks up at him.

"Smug? You're imagining things," Annabeth grins and slips down off the wall as Percy walks up beside her. He leans down and kisses her cheek, then the two of them leave the battle scene behind them, exiting off the street. Manhattan was far different from how it used to be - or, what Percy had been told about how it had been. He'd never seen, in person, how it had been before the Erebus Virus and mutant rise. He'd only ever known as it was now - densely populated around the centre, loosely inhabitated around the outskirts. The skyscrapers remain, but only a few are actually used. There is order, but very little outside of the Survivor population. Mutants live in the outskirts, in hiding, keeping their heads down. Only a fool would rebel against such a concentrated population of Survivors.

Although Manhattan was a city with one of the highest amount of Hunters and Survivors, along with a large Human security institute, it was also the base of Olympian Corporations. The corporation had been stripped of all of its privileges and allowances, and was running on bare minimum - still, a lot of background research was conducted within the mutant community, which went unnoticed by the Hunter government. Olympian was also home to where Percy and Annabeth both worked - MDD Mutant Defense Department. Percy had been working with MDD for five years - ever since he'd been sheltered there at the age of 17, when his mutant powers first developed. It'd been a huge turn around point in his life - he can't imagine now what it would be like for him without the MDD. Some mutants were lucky, they had no alterations to their human appearances, and could pass off for human or Hunter (unless tests were conducted). Annabeth was lucky enough, in Percy's opinion, to look absolutely human. He, on the other hand, sported a fish-tail and fins. That's right. Fins. And gills.

**The MDD** _The Mutant Defense Department/Divison (names are interchangeable) shelters and employs Mutants who do not have homes, or are most likely to be caught by Hunters. Mutants in the employment of the MDD are sent on various 'Quests'. These can range between anything from taking messages to other MDD Facilties around the USA, eliminating uncontrollable or dangerous monster populations, and finding vulnerable Mutants who need a shelter. The MDD was founded in 2102, two years after the first appearances of Mutant DNA._

Percy and Annabeth walk through the scarcely-busy streets of outer-Manhattan. The path they take is second nature to them, because they've travelled across the city so many times. The sun lurks around the horizon, as it's almost sundown. It's worse to travel at night-time, so they pick up their pace, hoods tucked over their heads. The MDD, at first glance, is a regular looking, low-slung building. The walls are a murky white, and the front doors are glass, with oak lining. There is no sign or indication that the building belongs to Olympian, or houses the MDD, which is a good thing. The roof is low, dark, and flat. Street lamps line the sidewalks around the building, but they are switched off, at the moment. Percy pushes open the front doors, walking through the small lobby of the MDD. The man sat at the front desk - wearing a blue shirt, blonde hair tucked up into a cap, and two weapons strapped to his belt - glances at they briefly, before looking back to the papers he's holding in his hand. If you took a second, closer glance at the doorman, you'd notice how there were eyes on the back of his hands, and third eye lodged in the middle of his forehead. Percy and Annabeth go through the door into the rest of the institute without having to sign in.

Inside, the facility is bustling with a surprising amount of activity - people walking from room to room, down the hallways, talking with each other. You can tell which of them are errand-runners, and which of them are stay-back employees. The stay-backs are all wearing uniforms of the same shade of orange. Whoever chose the colour must've been some kind of colour-blind. Errand-runners usually were carrying some kind of personal weapon, or sporting bandages of some sort. Nearly all of those inside the MDD were at least a little mutant, whether it showed or not. Only a rare few of them were Survivors, who disagreed with the government and harboured with mutants instead.

The MDD has several wings - The training wing, the medical wing, the errand wing, the barracks, and the dining hall. The training wing is further underground, stretching beyond the expanse of building you can see from above ground. The training wing provides basic survival skill, along with further training in all manner of classes. Some mutants take physical classes, others also take academic subjects. The MDD can rehabilitate, shelter, teach, and prepare mutants for a life on their own, if they chose to move on from the shelter. The medical wing is, unfortunately, small, but has all manner of experienced doctors tending to the patients, which are almost completely all errand-runners. The errand wing is the smallest, and is where Manager Chiron and Mr D, the Director, call mutants to give out their missions and quests. This is also where things are discussed, reviewed, and planned.

Percy and Annabeth head towards the errand wing, taking the flight of stairs into the underground region, and passing through the entirety of the training corridor. The errand wing is farthest from the entrance to the MDD, because it holds all of the information regarding the mutant population, which does not want to be dropped into the wrong hands. They head towards Chiron's office, at the end of the corridor - a solid oaken door, with Dr. Chiron printed in gold across the front.

"Sorry, but you two are the only ones I trust enough to take the message to JUPITER without fail," Chiron says, but neither Annabeth or Percy are convinced all that much. They'd only just returned from a long-winded message errand, along with the smaller, elimination trips between then and now. Chiron now needed the two of them to take a very important message to the JUPITER institute in San Francisco. Neither of them knew anything about the message - it was written on memory card, which was only compatible with the JUPITER network.

"Do we at least get to know what message we're taking?" Annabeth asks. Chiron sighs and spins the memory card between his fingers slowly.

"Most of it is confidential, but there are some things that I might as well warn you about - I trust you are both knowledgable on the Erebus Institute?" Chiron says, and looks up at Percy and Annabeth from where he sits at his desk. Both of them nod. Everyone knows about Erebus.

"And you are aware of the twelve 'Earth-born' that were developed there?" Again, both of them nod. Percy furrows his eyebrows, wondering where this is going. Considering they were now talking about the earth-born, it couldn't be good.

"They, along with their creator, are no longer loyal to Erebus - instead, they've created allies with the San Francisco and Manhattan Hunter goverments. We've recently recieved reports of Mutants being killed, or going missing, due to attacks. On your journey, you must avoid these groups of Hunters, and any trace of the Earth-born, until we know more about the situation. Cell-phones are being tracked, you know this. Annabeth, you must take your Daedalus handset with you, it is the only way we can communicate, if we need to," Chiron explains, and Annabeth nods resolutely when he addresses her. The Daedalus is a mini, portable laptop, which can pick up the most remote reaches of contact. It also bypasses the goverments tracking devices and firewalls.

"What if we do run into some Earthborn?" Percy asks.

"Then do not provoke them - the situation is precarious as it is, and you must deliver the message to JUPITER. Plus, I don't want to lose my two best Mutants, do I?" Chiron finishes, with a small smile. They discuss the route they will take, and decide on taking the old pick-up for long-distance errands. It'll make the journey shorter, and safer. They will leave the next morning, and hopefully, be home by the next weekend.

**A/N - There, I hope you liked it! I have a rough idea of where this is going, but it's a little complicated...I need to smooth out some plot points. So, as mentioned, Percy is a half-fish, half-human mutant, and yes, he can breathe underwater. Annabeth is a telepath, which I didn't mention in this chapter.**

**Please let me know if you spot any grammar mistakes, or typos, thanks!**

**~Rad**


End file.
